Thank you, President. I join others in thanking USG DiCarlo for her briefing. And, while we welcome President Zelenskyy’s participation again, we deeply regret the circumstances that brought him here today.

President, just over four months since the start of its illegal invasion, Russia’s war against Ukraine continues.

Russia continues to pummel Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in an effort to seize full control.

And over the weekend, Russia launched an intense barrage of cruise missile attacks at targets across Ukraine, including hitting a shopping centre in Kremenchuk with over 1000 people inside.

We heard, from President Zelenskyy, the roll call of the recent dead, and extend our condolences to their families and their friends.

When the world calls for peace, for dialogue and adherence to international law, Russia answers with escalation, with missiles, and targeting civilians.

More attacks.

More destruction.

More death.

And, as I am sure will hear again today, more war propaganda, more lies, more disinformation.

Nor can we ignore the prominent role of Belarus in acting as a direct staging post for the attacks over the weekend and yesterday.

We praise the extraordinary bravery and resolve of the Ukrainian people in the face of this brutal assault on its sovereignty and territorial integrity — and its very existence as a country.

Ukraine is entitled to defend itself, as any of us would if our cities, towns and villages were subject to repeated relentless missile strikes by a foreign army focussed on wiping out our existence.

So, we will continue to support Ukraine to exercise this right of self-defence, and to re-secure its privileges and rights under the UN Charter.

We, yet again, reiterate the calls of the international community for Russia to end its illegal invasion, withdraw outside Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders and enter into dialogue and negotiation.

At a time when we are facing the existential threats of climate change and food insecurity following a global pandemic, Russia must end its illegal war, and its blockade of Ukraine’s ports.

Thank you, President.

Thank you, President.

I don’t want to take too much more time, but I wanted to say that the Russian representative can try to claim that nothing is true and make outrageous claims of Ukrainian provocations.

Cover ups are as old as crime itself, but the undeniable fact is that Russian forces are in Ukraine, and there are no Ukrainian forces in Russia.

There is one aggressor here. The evidence will catch up with them and there will be accountability for these crimes.

Thank you.

A range of measures in the Nationality and Borders Act (NABA) are now in force, giving the Government new powers to tackle criminality, secure our borders and deter people from making these dangerous journeys.

The Nationality and Borders Act, which received Royal Assent in April, will radically reform our broken system to better support those in genuine need of asylum through safe and legal routes and break the business model of trafficking networks.

From today, a raft of measures will take effect, including:

• Tougher penalties for those who pilot a small boat or smuggle migrants into the UK via other dangerous or illegal means, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment
• Increasing the maximum penalty for illegally entering the UK or overstaying a visa from six months to four years imprisonment
• Introduction of a new differentiated approach, whereby those who did not come to the UK directly, did not claim without delay, or did not show good cause for their illegal entry or presence, may be given a different set of entitlements than those who have complied with these requirements, including a shorter grant of permission to stay (a minimum of 30 months instead of 5 years)
• New powers for immigration officers to search containers taken off the ship or aircraft on which they arrived for illegal migrants
• Removing Foreign National Offenders currently held in our prisons sooner by having tougher criteria for those with a criminal history and seeking asylum, meaning offenders can now be removed up to 12 months before the end of the custodial part of their sentence
• An ability to impose visa penalties – this means slowing or stopping our services where countries pose a risk to international peace and security and those that refuse to take back their own citizens who have no right to be in the UK

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

This is one of the most crucial milestones in delivering on our promise to the British public to take back control of our borders.

While there is no single solution to the global migration crisis, these reforms which come into effect today play a vital role in overhauling the broken asylum system as we put our New Plan for Immigration into action.

We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that we offer protection and sanctuary to those in genuine need; but these new measures will enable us to crack down on abuse of the system and the evil people-smugglers, who will now be subject to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment as a result of this law coming into force.

In addition, the Nationality and Borders Act will fix anomalies in UK nationality laws which have denied British nationality to some children of British Overseas Territory citizens.

For instance, before 1 January 1983 women with British Overseas Territory citizenship could not pass on British nationality to children born outside the UK and its territories. Similarly, before 1 July 2006 children born to unmarried British Overseas Territory fathers could not acquire British nationality through their father.

Today, the Home Office is also launching citizenship routes for all those denied citizenship by these anomalies.

The Nationality and Borders Act will scrap outdated rules requiring children born outside an Overseas Territory to British Overseas Territory citizen parents to be registered within 12 months of their birth in order to qualify for citizenship.

Other measures in the act which became law in April, will be implemented over the coming months and into next year.

Thank you, Mr President.

State-backed disinformation and the systematic manipulation of information in the digital age presents a fundamental challenge to the enjoyment and realisation of human rights.

States that engage in disinformation campaigns deploy overly broad laws, extensive censorship and internet shutdowns. They suppress legitimate expression and prevent the free flow of information, the countering of false narratives and fact-checking efforts.

Disinformation and hate speech has paved the way for war crimes, atrocities and genocide, from the Holocaust to Rwanda to Bosnia. The current Russian disinformation directed towards Ukraine and Ukrainians is profoundly disturbing.

The Kremlin has fed Russian citizens a steady stream of propaganda seeking to dehumanise Ukrainians since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. This has intensified following the failing full scale invasion. The Kremlin’s propaganda machine has: pushed outlandish claims that Ukraine is controlled by neo-Nazis; run a disinformation campaign to deflect responsibility for the war crimes its forces committed in Bucha, calling it an ‘attack of fakes’ despite clear evidence to the contrary; and, while preventing exports of grain by blockading Ukrainian ports, sought to obfuscate Russia’s culpability for holding the world’s food supply to ransom in an attempt to get sanctions eased.

And in Russia, the Kremlin has legislated against references to ‘war’ or ‘invasion’, closed Russia’s independent press, prevented protests from taking place, stopped access to social media and arrested individuals for telling the truth.

A free, independent, plural and diverse media is the best antidote to disinformation.

Panellists, how can States work with the private sector to ensure a rights based approach to tackling disinformation?

Thank you.